With a US election campaign ramping up, many people around the world are paying attention to the impact of misinformation and disinformation on democracy.
Electoral management bodies, including election officials at all levels of government, are looking to social media monitoring to battle election interference through disinformation campaigns. Three types of attacks are commonly seen during election years:
- Spreading hate among various social groups
- Increasing distrust in the electoral process
- Misleading the public
In my e-book, Using Social Media Data to Transform Election Monitoring, I discuss five questions of context that are key in tracing and combating misinformation and disinformation.
The who, what, when, where, and how are critical in detecting mis/disinformation
- Who: Individuals who spread misinformation/disinformation, and the connections between them
- What: What they’re saying (text, images, emojis, logos)
- When: Time relative to election process – time of day/weekdays
- Where: The platform(s) culprits use, and their geographical location
- Why: The context of individuals’ discourse: other conversations they are involved in, and other topics they discuss
You can grab a copy of my e-book, Using Social Media Data to Transform Election Monitoring, available on @amazon today.